Red Lodge Museum is one of the free museums in Bristol I’ve been to recently. It’s a gorgeous house with quite unusual features, so I would say is worth visiting it. It was a family home, upgraded over the years, as most old houses are. You can check for more details on their website.
How gorgeous is this Chandelier? I love everything about it, the colour, the craftsmanship. I think it looks just as impressive today as it would have looked when it was made, a few hundred years ago.
The Great Oak Room is stunning, made from 1578 to 1580. The level of details is just amazing. It’s a wonderful room, with a Bath-stone chimney-piece. On one of the walls a painting of Queen Elizabeth I is on display. That is very appropriate considering the period in which the room was made.
The first owner was Sir John Younge, an official at the court of Queen Elizabeth. From that point on, the house was owned by merchant families, landowner, a doctor, and twice it was a school.
One of the things I enjoy most in Tudor homes are these details. It’s amazing that this room is still like this, after the house was altered in the 1720s. Everything in the Oak Rooms survives from the 1850s.
The four poster bed is located in the oldest part of the house. Four poster beds are another thing I love, they look like a piece of art in themselves. This room dates back to 1600.
A few years ago they made a startling discovery at Red Lodge Museum; there was a well in the middle of one of the rooms.
In 1580, when the house was built, this would have been a yard and this was the well they would have used. 100 years later the house was extended, but the well might have been used until the installation of pipes for water in Victorian times. The well was bricked over and it was forgotten until 2010, when the floor needed some work done.
From the window you can see The Knot Garden. It was a lovely surprise to see a wonderful garden hidden in a bustling city. The garden looks like it would have had in Elizabethan times, 400 years ago.
Red Lodge Museum is on Park Row, BS1 5LJ, Bristol. If you are driving in Bristol, the museum is very close to the Trenchard Street multi-storey car park. We’ve parked there, as is affordable and close to the city centre. Red Lodge is opened three days in winter and four days in the summer time. It has free entry.
I can’t believe I’ve visited Bristol so many times and yet never heard about this little museum! It looks really interesting to learn more about the time period. I love the well they discovered, it’s great that they keep working on the place and finding new gems like this!
Julia x
That four poster bed is stunning. I wish a four post bed would look good in my house, but it just wouldn’t! There is something luxurious about them though.
Thanks for sharing! ♥
I’m drawn to many of the same things you are. The carving on that fireplace and on the bed are wonderful. Fascinating about the well, too.